50 things you didn't know about Sandra Bullock: She's allergic to horses and what's her favorite movie

The beautiful and talented Academy Award-winning actress Sandra Bullock is known for her roles in such films as Speed, While You Were Sleeping, The Proposal and The Blind Side which earned her an Oscar.

1. She was born in Washington, D.C., on July 26, 1964.

2. Her full name is Sandra Annette Bullock.

3. Her mother is Helga (Meyer), a German opera singer, and her father is John W. Bullock, a U.S. voice teacher from Alabama.

4. Bullock grew up largely on the road. She studied music and dance while she traveled throughout Europe, and made her first stage appearance at the age of 5 in a small role for an opera in Nuremburg, Germany.

5. She can still speak German today.

6. She attended the humanistic Waldorf School.

7. When she was 12, her parents returned to Washington where she attended the Washington-Lee High School. She was popular at school and was on the cheerleading team and participated in theater productions.

8. As a child, Sandra played a beggar in one of her mother's operas, but almost upstaged the lead."What they did was throw up these chocolates...like a bravo," she told Vogue,"and I hit the ground, crawling."

9. Bullock then went to East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, to study acting, but left college only three credits shy of her bachelor's degree.

10. She left to go to New York City to pursue her acting dream and joined the Neighborhood Playhouse Theatre. She took acting classes, and supported herself with waitressing and bartending work.

11. She did several B-grade movies and appeared on the ill-fated NBC sitcom Working Girl.

12. In 1993, Bullock replaced Lori Petty in the futuristic Sylvester Stallone vehicle Demolition Man, but critics largely panned the film as "incoherent" and "one-dimensional."

13. Bullock first became widely known for her role in the 1994 hit Speed. "Everyone told me not to do Speed," she tells The Virginian-Pilot. "I mean, it looked like I'd be just 'the girl,' [but] I've learned to do things by instinct."

14. While she was working on Two If by Sea (1996), discovered she is allergic to horses.

15. She then had a string of hit movies: While You Were Sleeping (1995), The Net (1995) and A Time to Kill (1996), Two If By Sea (1996) and Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997).

16. Bullock's role in the 1995 hit romantic comedy, While You Were Sleeping, was originally meant for Demi Moore.

17. Bullock starred alongside Matthew McConaughey in A Time to Kill, and they begin dating. "I just look at her and I think, Wow!" McConaughey tells In Style. "But she doesn't know how beautiful she is or how much people like her. She's just so regular about everything."

18. She moved to Austin, Texas to be close to boyfriend Matthew and she opened a Cajun-inspired restaurant.

19. In 1998, she forms her own production company Fortis Films, which her younger sister Gesine helps run. She signs a production deal with Warner Bros and makes some successful movies like Hope Floats, Two Weeks Notice, Miss Congeniality among others.

20. Sandra was considered for the lead in Runaway Bride (1999) but it went to Julia Roberts instead.

21. On December 20, 2000, Bullock and another passenger survived the crash of a chartered business jet during an attempted night landing at Jackson Hole Airport. The pilots were unable to activate the runway lights due to having out-of-date approach plates, but continued the landing.

22. The bulk of her roles were comedic or romantic and she attempted to do some more serious acting with her performance in 28 Days which was not as popular.

23. However, that same year she was in Miss Congeniality which did well at the box office.

24. She meets stand up comedian George Lopez at one of his gigs and sees great potential in him. She gives him his own show and becomes the executive producer of the Latino sitcom, George Lopez, which runs for six successful seasons on ABC.

25. While starring in Murder by Numbers, she quietly begins dating co-star Ryan Gosling, who is 16 years younger than Bullock. The two date for more than a year, but keep their relationship very private.

26. While filming Murder By Numbers, Bullock brought a Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist to help the cast and crew cope with stress.

27. She's done a lot of romantic comedy type movies and did her last one before saying she wanted to focus on more serious and challenging roles. Her final one was Two Weeks Notice with Hugh Grant. "I had the ultimate romantic partner in Hugh Grant. So I've done that nice chapter in my life, and that chapter is closed...I'd rather go watch one than be in one because I wouldn't buy it if I was doing it now," she tells Vogue.

28. Costar and friend Hugh Grant called Sandra Bullock's 16-years-younger boyfriend Ryan Gosling, "The Child": "I'd do the sound of a baby crying," he said, "and she'd know who I meant."

29. While touring the set of vehicle-makeover show Monster Garage with her godson in 2003, Bullock meets tattooed motorcycle tycoon Jesse James.

30. Her role in 2005's Crash was one of her favorites. It "gave me so much pride. It was re-inspiring."

31. She married Jesse James in 2005 and becomes a stepmother to his three children. "I always thought of marriage as a death sentence," Bullock tells Vanity Fair, "that there'd be a ball and chain, and you'd be told, 'You need to stop doing these things and become a good little wife'."

32. In 2006, Bullock was acclaimed for her portrayal of author Harper Lee in the Truman Capote biopic Infamous. "It's a very scary undertaking," Bullock tells Vogue, of playing Lee. "I'm sort of in a new phase in life where I don't want to do anything that doesn't petrify me, even if it's not well received. It's good to do things that scare the shit out of you...It's not the lead, but it helps tell Truman's story and it's scary. But this chapter's all about scary stuff."

33. In 2008, Bullock was announced as "the face" of prestigious cosmetic brand Artistry.

34. Despite vowing to not do another rom-com, she returns with two more flicks in 2009: All About Steve and The Proposal with Ryan Reynolds.

35. Until the age of eighteen, Bullock held an American/German dual citizenship.In 2009, she reapplied for German citizenship.

36. That same year, she starred in The Blind Side which broke box office records. She became the first female star to lead a film into the $200 million mark. "I've never had this many opportunities in my lifetime," she told EW.

37. Ironically, that same year in 2009, she also won two two "Razzies" for her performance in All About Steve. She is the only performer ever to have been named both "Best" and "Worst" for the same year.

38. Funny enough, she was asked to return her 2009 "Worst Actress of the Year" Razzie award but not because they changed their mind after she won an Oscar, but because Bullock personally accepted her Razzie and accidentally took the original one-of-a-kind prototype Razzie, as opposed to the cheap trinket normally handed out to celebrities.

39. By 2009, Bullock's films had grossed over $3.1 billion worldwide.According to The Numbers, her total domestic gross stands at $1.7 billion, placing her among the Top 100 Stars at the Box Office.

40. In 2010, her performance earns Bullock - who wins a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award - her first Oscar.

41. She was selected by People magazine as its "Woman of the Year" for 2010.

42. Sandra was all over the media due to her first Oscar win. However, just 8 days after her win, she was making news waves but for an entirely different reason. Reports surfaced that her husband of five years, Jesse James, had an affair.

43. While James enters a treatment facility and apologizes to his wife and children for his "poor judgment," Bullock decides to end of their marriage, ultimately finalizing their divorce in June 2010.

44. Turning her life around, she decides to adopt an adorable 3 month old boy Louis Bardo Bullock.

45. She was ranked #12 on People's Most Beautiful 2011 list.

46. In 2013, she starred in The Heat, which was financially the most successful comedy of the year at the domestic box office. "I've always wanted to do a female buddy film, the kind the guys get to do," she told Parade."This didn't have anything to do with getting a guy, and it didn't involve shoe shopping." The R-rated film goes on to gross more than $150 million.

47. She received her second nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with the BFCA, Golden Globe and SAG awards for her role as Dr. Ryan Stone in Gravity.

48. Bullock did a PSA urging people to sign a petition for clean-up efforts of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

49. She is 5' 7½" (1.71 m).

50. Some of her nicknames include Sandy, America's Sweetheart, The Girl Next Door.

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